First in Istanbul...
Olympiacos succeeded what most never imagined. He didn’t just beat Fenerbahce/Ulker but did it with such a score that gives him the top ranking spot of the group and thus the home court advantage for the Euroleague quarter-finals. The “reds” under Dusan Ivkovic edged the Tuks 65 – 80 in the presence of Messrs. Panagiotis and Giorgos Angelopoulos (i.e. owners of the Club).
The Olympiacos players never succumbed in the “hot” Sinan Erden and despite trailing by 12 (49-37) played superb basketball in the last 15 minutes of the game and led by Mavrokefalides – Erceg and Papaloukas not only they turned the score in their favor, but also covered the 14 points margin of their defeat in the Peace and Friendship Stadium taking the absolute advantage and bringing Siena in their way to the Final Four.
How they did it? With a 3-pointer by captain Teo Papaloukas 3’’ before the end and after Erceg had missed at a 3-point shot from the corner and the offensive rebound grabbed by Papaloukas himself.
Τhe quarters: 18-20, 36-34, 55-54, 65-80
Per quarter: 18-20, 18-14, 19-20, 10-26
Referees: Αrteaga (Spain), Τaurino (Italy), Conde (Spain)
FENERBAHCE/ULKER (Νeven Spahija): Ukic 14, Onan 2, Lavrinovic 8 (1), Jasikevicus 7 (1), Peker 2, Savas 4, Kinsey 12, Τomas 9 (2), May 2, Preldzic 5 (1).
ΟLYMPIACOS (Dusan Ivkovic): Papaloukas 9 (1), Νesterovic 16, Spanoulis 12, Pelekanos, Μavrokefalides 18, Glyniadakis 2, Papanikolaou, Erceg 19 (5), Teodosic 2, Gordon 2.
DUSAN IVKOVIC: I think that overall, it was a very tough game with many changes throughout. Tonight’s game resembles the first game of the two teams for the TOP-16. We lost by 13 in Piraeus in the last quarter and tonight we won by 16. We lost concentration in the beginning of the second half, when Fener played superb defense and we stopped controlling the game. My team, facing all these problems, showed how team basketball is played. Our big guys won the game tonight. Nesterovic, Mavrokefalides and Erceg had been great.
I would like to dedicate this victory to two people. One is Panagiotis Vassilopoulos who has had yet another surgery and the second one is my son Pavlos, who became 16 year old today.
When we were trailing by 12, I told my players that if they want to win they have to give a battle. We played excellent defense, we started communicating and that was it.
PANAGIOTIS ANGELOPOULOS: It was one of our most important victories on the road and certainly the one we enjoyed most of all. When we were trailing by 12 the coach of the opponent decided to use Jasikevicius and that’s when we turned the game in our favor.
LOUKAS MAVROKEFALIDES: We showed character and we made it in a hot atmosphere, made the upset and reached a great victory.
We don’t care who is going to be our rival for the Euroleague play-offs. We need our fans to be by our side in the Peace and Friendship Stadium. We want them there when we play Zalgiris.
I hadn’t been in a good shape lately; however, I try to improve on a daily basis.
NEVEN SPAHIJA: We made a lot of mistakes and that’s why we lost. It’s very difficult to understand what happened. We haven’t played such a bad quarter the whole season. I’ll have to analyze the game and see what happened.